~ Wine, beer, spirits, cocktails and bars

Monthly Archives: September 2015

The Daily Meal, a popular food and drink lifestyle site, has just unveiled its 2015 list of the 50 Best College Bars in America, and guess what? As usual with national “best of” lists, Orange County got stiffed. Oh, the ignorance! Despite a wealth of college campuses and our famously leisure-oriented lifestyle, the Mealsters couldn’t find a single student-friendly dive, beer hall, boite or watering hole to single out for praise in our fair county. Here’s a list of 10 places they missed. (I could have picked 50.) They all have loads of atmosphere and a stimulating crowd, and you can order a drink there without dipping into your Pell Grant (although I threw in a couple of classy places for date-night purposes). Many aren’t within walking distance of a campus, but that’s what Uber is for.

320 Main

Owners Jason and Rebecca Schiffer transformed this downtown Seal Beach haunt into O.C.’s first bona fide cocktail Mecca, and it’s still in a league of its own for artfully made classic cocktails and inventive variations on age-old themes. The room feels timeless; Hemingway would have felt right at home here. Get a seat at the bar – watching the bartenders work is an integral part of the experience.

320 Main St., Seal Beach

562-799-6246

320mainsealbeach.com

The Anthill Pub & Grill

Great prices on brewskis are the draw at UCI’s beloved pub (especially during Happy Hour — $1 off pints, $3 off pitchers), and the selection is impressive, too. They manage to find and serve Pliny the Younger, which is about as challenging as getting J.D. Salinger to do a reading in your dorm room.

215-C Student Center, Irvine

949-824-3050

Barley Forge

This new Costa Mesa brewery isn’t as much of a secret as when it first opened – it gets crowded quickly despite its commodious size. Bonus: unlike most craft breweries, it has its own kitchen. The food truck industry must be heartbroken.

2957-B Randolph Ave., Costa Mesa

714-641-2084

barleyforge.com

Beach Ball

Who doesn’t love a dive-y, rowdy beach bar on a sunny Saturday? Even Bartleby the Scrivener would have ended up yakking his fool head off at this friendly place, where the beer is cheap, strangers will pull you into their orbit, and the people-watching is world-class. (Hmmm, Hemingway would have felt right at home here, too.)

2116 W. Oceanfront, Newport Beach

949-675-8041

beachballbar.com

Bootlegger’s Brewery

This is craft beer drinking in its most elemental form, with a bare-bones outdoor seating area that could pass for a prison yard. But don’t let that be a turn-off – Bootlegger’s makes some primo IPAs. Try the Knuckle Sandwich DIPA if you dare, hop heads.

130 S. Highland Ave., Fullerton

714-871-2337

The Bruery

Still the gold standard for artisanal beer in the O.C. Everything is worth trying here, from porters and stouts to some of the puckeriest sours you’ll encounter south of Firestone’s Buellton tasting room. Go for the flights – they’re always cleverly put together and illuminating, even to jaded beer snobs.

715 Dunn Way, Placentia

714-996-6258

thebruery.com

Goat Hill Tavern

Want that feeling that you’re at a blue-collar townie bar near some big ol’ state school in a godforsaken Texas town the night before a crucial football game? That would be the Goat Hill Tavern on any random night. It’s a rowdy, dog-eared mess, but there are 140 taps staring at you when you walk in the door. And throwing peanut shells on the floor appeals to the inner Pigpen in all of us.

1830 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa

949-548-8428

goathilltavern.com.

Lola Gaspar

I always feel like I’m in a back-alley bistro in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter when I’m at this tiny restaurant-bar in the same plaza as CSUF’s Grand Central Arts Center. It’s got a fascinating bar menu with seasonal cocktails and, for the plebes, cheap Happy Hour beer. You’re smack dab in the middle of DTSA, with its plethora of possibilities, but if you want to get into a serious discussion about Marcuse, Mapplethorpe or “Moby-Dick,” this is the place.

211 W. Second St., Santa Ana

714-972-1172

lolagaspar.co.

Pizzeria Ortica

The handiwork of whiz-bang bar manager Joel Caruso is the reason to seek out this place in the shadow of South Coast Plaza. A dizzying array of sweet vermouths, barrel-aged cocktails, intelligent reconstructions of classics like the Negroni – the possibilities will keep you glued to the bar all night long. Oh, and the pizzas are terrific, too. Don’t forget to validate your parking – otherwise that fancy parking spot in the garage will cost you more than your drink.

650 Anton Boulevard, Unit J

Costa Mesa

714-445-4900

pizzeriaortica.com

Turc’s

Who wouldn’t want to hang out in a dive bar where Douglas Fairbanks is rumored to have whiled away some idle hours? Yes, it’s been around that long, and the décor looks like it hasn’t been freshened up since the Eisenhower era, but that’s part of the charm. Turc’s is the kind of place where you could nurse a $6 whiskey all night long, as long as you don’t cause a ruckus. Just check out the dusty nautical décor and the local color – it’s a novel waiting to happen.

Fred Dame is the Leonard Bernstein of sommeliers – the first American to break into an elite field that was always dominated by Europeans. He served a term as president of the Court of Master Sommeliers Worldwide, a feat never before achieved by someone from this side of the Atlantic.

Dame, 62, has achieved some other impressive honors. He was the first person to pass all three parts of the Master Sommelier Examination in a single year. But he didn’t just squeak by – his high grades won him the Krug Cup of the British Guild of Sommeliers in 1984.

Dame founded the American Branch of The Court of Master Sommeliers in 1986, and he has worked tirelessly over the last three decades to establish and expand the Master Sommelier program in the U.S. Not surprisingly, he has a part in “Somm,” the popular 2012 documentary about the sommelier movement.

Dame will host a private wine event at the 2nd annual 2015 Newport Beach Wine & Food Festival from Oct. 2-4. He is one of several food and wine celebrities in this year’s line-up. He’ll be joined by chefs Rick Bayless, Hubert Keller, and Rick Moonen and wine expert Michael Jordan, who made his mark in Orange County at Napa Rose in downtown Disney and The Ranch in Anaheim.

The Register talked with Dame about his glamorous but high-stress profession.

Q. Identifying a wine in a blind taste test, one of the requirements of the master sommelier exam, is an extremely difficult skill. Can it be taught, or is the ability largely innate?

A. You know, that’s a great question. There have been all kinds of conjectures. My experience is that probably during my entire 30 years career of doing this, I’ve seen maybe three or four who were truly spectacularly gifted. And male or female, it doesn’t make any difference. But the majority of people that we teach really have to work at that skill. We have very few natural tasters; most of these folks are people who, through training and tasting, condition themselves to be successful.

Q. There’s been an explosion of interest in the sommelier field. Have we reached the saturation point in the U.S.?

A. I don’t know. When you dine out, are you always happy about the wine? There’s always room for talent and quality. There’s another “Somm” movie coming out in November that’s really more of a wine movie. And a there’s a reality show about coming out in the fall. We will see how it plays out.

Q. The American wine scene has changed profoundly since you started. Can you talk about that?

A. When I started out back in the ’70s, the biggest sellers were Wente and Blue Nun – sweet or off-dry wines – and big Bordeaux. And that was about it. It’s been a pretty amazing run, and a couple of very important things happened along the way. André Tchelistcheff [a Russian-born winemaker and wine-industry adviser who was one of the first quality wine producers in California] really changed the course of California wine; over a 20-year period everything improved incredibly. I think also that cross training – Americans training in France, Frenchmen in New Zealand, South Africans in Italy and so on – brought consistency and knowledge to the industry worldwide. The sharing of technology improved. And the public’s interest has grown.

Q. Talk in more detail about how winemaking has also improved since you started in the profession.

A. I think the technological stuff is amazing – all the toys we have today. Look at optical sorters. You don’t need 15 people on a triage tray. We’ve discovered cover crops, refined our knowledge about the use of water. The clonal work has been amazing. We’re starting to understand the importance of terroir now too. It shows in the wines. Even the high end of things is doing phenomenally well. And when you look at the quality of sparklers, for example, it is pretty astounding what you can get now for the money. Go to a good retail store today and think about the options you had even 10 years ago vs. today. It’s night and day.

Q. With the explosion of winemakers in America, what are the secrets to getting a worthwhile wine to the right market?

A. That’s a tough one. I was in Walla Walla a couple of months ago, looking at what they do with merlot and syrah. They’re really good. On the other hand, try and sell syrah. As good as it is, if “Sideways” had been about the merits of syrah instead of pinot, who knows where it would be today.

A. I think with 2012, ’13 and ’14, they’re all phenomenal and just different enough from each other to be interesting. We are coming into the greatest buyer’s market of all time in California. Across the board, no matter what region I’m visiting, the quality is high. That’s what really astounds me. It’s not just Napa and Sonoma. I was looking back, and in Bordeaux you can find doubles, but three great vintages in a row is extremely rare. 1864-65 was perhaps the greatest of the back-to-back vintages; I can’t find three.

Q. Has quality improved all American wine, even the cheap stuff?

A. You can talk [badly] about American low-end wine all you want, but in the U.S. we have the best jug wines of any country in the world. Their flavor profile is consistent. Their quality is consistent. You get a lot for your money.

Next week, intern Bo McMillan and I weigh in on the cover of the Food section with an appraisal of flavored vodka. After years of over-the-top confectionery flavors, the trend is finally returning to reality with infusions that are more natural and make sense as a cocktail ingredient.

I talked recently to Carl Nolet Jr., executive vice president of Nolet Spirits USA, an Aliso Viejo-based company (the domestic branch of the huge Dutch distiller) that makes the enduringly popular Ketel One vodka. I didn’t use all of the interview in my story, but I thought it was interesting enough to share more of it with you here:

What are the most recent trends in flavored vodka that you have noticed?

There’s obviously been a surge in the past few years of confectionery flavors and fruit flavor combinations (i.e., mango pineapple). We’re seeing now that vodka drinkers, millennials in particular, are gravitating towards more traditional and more natural fruit flavors. Ketel One Citroen and Ketel One Oranje give consumers the chance to enjoy the best of both worlds. We create flavored varietals by infusing only the natural oils and essence of the finest citrus fruit.

Do you have any demographic research or theories about people who like flavored vodkas?

We know that millennial consumers, women in particular, are very open to flavored vodkas and have helped shape the category. Regarding Ketel One’s success in the flavored category, the Ketel One Vodka consumer is a discerning drinker who appreciates quality.

How has the artisanal movement affected the flavored-vodka scene?

The artisanal movement is rooted in the importance of quality and taste. I believe that has led consumers back to the more traditional fruit flavors like citrus versus the more confectionery fruit flavors that have come and gone over the past few years. It has made some vodka drinkers insist on natural ingredients.

One of the newest additions to the busy Paso Robles wine scene is a refreshingly unique winery called LXV. It is the inspiration of Neeta and Kunal Mittal, both natives of India, who met and fell in love while attending UC Berkeley.

The couple had frequently flown over the central coast during visits to Southern California, and its wild beauty attracted them. Finally they took a car trip to the country around Paso Robles, and it was love at first sight.

The Mittels’ winery offers only a few small-output labels, but the wine I tried is quite good. (That’s no surprise: It’s made at ONX, an up-and-coming winery in the new Templeton Gap AVA that has won major awards recently with its unusual red blends.)

Here’s what makes LXV different from countless other new wineries coming out of this region: its wines are designed to be paired with Indian, Italian and other spicy foods. If you visit the winery’s tasting room in downtown Paso Robles, a plate accompanies your tasting. It’s divided into four quadrants; each contains tiny bites of cheese coated in dry herb and spice mixtures.

With the 2014 Summer Satine, a well-balanced viognier, we tasted garam masala, prepared by Neeta’s mom back home in India. The 2014 Heart Note, a rose that was slightly sweet, goes with tamarind, brown sugar, cinnamon and merlot salt. The Crimson Jewel, a combination of sangiovese and petite sirah, is paired with basil, oregano, parsley, and dried bits of tomato, onion and garlic. The 2013 Lover’s Spell, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and syrah, mates with black truffle salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and savory.

The name of the winery is inspired by Indian culture. There are 64 arts in the Kama Sutra (contrary to popular belief, the ancient Hindu text is more than a sex guide. It also instructs the reader in the ways of virtuous and gracious living, and its lessons cover even mundane arts such as pillow arranging). Those of you who can decipher Roman numerals know that LXV is 65 – in other words, wine and food pairing is being presented as the 65th art.

The LXV tasting room is more exotic than most, with deep blue walls, day beds filled with plush pillows and a very non-Western vibe. It’s worth a trip, especially if you’re burned out on the run-of-the-mill tasting room experience. There’s only one downside: afterwards you’ll be hankering for some good Indian food, and Paso, alas, doesn’t have an Indian restaurant. Perhaps that should be the Mittels’ next project.

There is one solution: Neeta offers a private dinner, which reveals the correlations between wine and Indian food flavors in five pairings. It’s $100 per person.

Anaheim’s OC Fest of Ales is back for its third year at the Center Street Promenadein downtown Anaheim. The event will be held on Sept. 19 from noon until 4 p.m. Some of the proceeds from this year’s festival will benefit two non-profit organizations, Cops4Kids and Downtown Anaheim Association.

Your ticket gets you unlimited tastes of more than 80 beers from 40 craft breweries and food from more than 15 Orange County restaurants. Live music is provided by The Rayford Brothers. To remember the experience, you get to keep a souvenir tasting glass.

You can also purchase tickets for $70 online at www.festofales.com. (Lower-priced Designated Driver tickets are also available.) Fans of the Good Libations column can receive a 20 percent discount on ticket prices by using the discount code “good.” Offer ends Sept. 17.

Something I’ve noticed in my travels through Paso Robles over the last few years: Big Money is transforming the area.

As success has brought attention and accolades to Paso, ultra-wealthy foreign and domestic investors have arrived on the scene, and their plans and visions have created grand possibilities, acts of generous stewardship, some controversy and, at times, tension. Their wineries can be spectacular looking, but it’s not all for show — they’re all determined to make high-quality wine, and some have been successful. Here are a few of them:

Dick Niner (Niner Wine Estates), who made his fortune investing in turnaround companies over three decades, became interested in Paso in 1996 after buying a manufacturer of sunglasses in San Luis Obispo. He bought the 224-acre Bootjack Ranch in 2001 and has expanded his investment and land holdings substantially since then. Niner has made no secret of his desire to be one of Paso’s largest producers – he constructed a gargantuan tasting room on Highway 46 with a commercial kitchen, restaurant and adjoining banquet hall. In another part of the valley Niner built a processing facility that can handle hundreds of thousands of cases per year. But since Niner’s son Andy took over day-to-day operations, the winery’s ambitions have become more focused on quality than size – a concession, perhaps, to the local pushback that greeted Niner’s initial plans.

Swiss-born Hansjörg Wyss (Halter Ranch Vineyard) made his fortune in medical devices; Forbes listed him as the world’s 121st-richest person in 2010. In Paso, though, Wyss keeps a low profile. He bought 900 acres of ranchland northwest of town in June of 2000; subsequent purchases have increased the estate to a gargantuan 2,000 acres. A longtime advocate of environmental preservation, he intends to leave most of the land wild, has created generous wildlife corridors throughout his vineyards, and operates organically and sustainably.

In 2013, Don Law (Law Estate Wines) and his wife Susie opened one of the area’s most lavish tasting rooms and wineries in the Peachy Canyon area, among the highest and most rugged spots in the hills west of Paso Robles. Law Estate Wines, whose original plantings date to 2008, focuses on Rhône blends, and in the last three years critical praise has been mounting for the wines made by Law’s veteran winemaker Scott Hawley. The winery is renowned for its unique and ingeniously simple gravity flow design. The Laws also decided to build the large facility slightly below the ridge top because they didn’t want their winery to visually dominate its neighborhood.

French brothers Daniel and Georges Daou (DAOU Vineyards) attended UC San Diego, where they graduated with degrees in electrical and computer engineering. After college, they formed DAOU Systems, where they developed intranet technologies for the medical industry. Their success allowed them to follow their passion: a spectacular hilltop winery estate in the Adelaida region that produces top-rated Bordeaux blends. (The phenolic numbers on their 2013s are phenomenal.) It’s worth visiting DAOU just to see the eye-popping tasting room and the wide-vista view from the grounds.